Design Concept

Wind is the first published typeface of Amsterdam-based book and graphic designer Hansje van Halem. Like her other work, which is highly experimental, it uses vivid colours and intricately detailed patterns to create unexpected optical illusions, and its various layers can be combined and overlaid to create vibrant, hypnotic patterns. While most of Van Halem's work is highly personal, Wind is a tool for graphic expression, as intuitive as it is systematic in its exploration of the limits of legibility and the differences between reading and viewing. Read more about the process of creating Wind typeface ▶

Styles

Wind is available in four styles, defined by the cardinal directions, four equal divisions NE, SE, SW, NE. These styles work bets for chromatic, layered typography.

Variable Font

Variable fonts were introduced in 2016, as an extension of OpenType specifications, where a single font file may behave like multiple fonts, allowing the users to modify one, or, several of its visual parameters. In addition to four static styles, Wind also includes variable fonts (VF) capable of a full 360° of rotation, (one clockwise, the other anti-clockwise), offering unprecedented possibilities for the exploration of repetitive textural patterns. Please note that variable font support is not quite there, with only some applications supporting it. Adobe Create Cloud 2018 includes support for variable fonts in Photoshop and Illustrator. Wind is made according to the official specifications, but its behaviour is quirky as its baseline shifts when slider is activated. We believe this is an application support bug.

Authors

The Wind type family family was published in 2017, designed by Hansje van Halem and technically produced by Peter Biľak. Thom Janssen created the Variable Font version of Wind.

Watch this short documentary about Hansje van Halem, the author of Wind.